CPO have done everyone a great service by making available these Swiss radio
broadcast performances. The set has had hardly any critical attention and,
as an intégrale, no competition. The closest we come to competition
is the much more general and excellent MD&G's five CD survey (Mannheimer
Quartet and Claudius Tanski) of the chamber music. MD&G's cycle seems
to have escaped review as well. The critics and magazines just don't like
Reger and as for Reger and chamber music .! This is a terrible pity
as hearing the present set manifestly demonstrates.

The first disc gives three works of most agreeable brevity (three quartets
on a 73 minute disc). The Quartet in D minor (1888/89) has Brahmsian
sturdiness and firm resolve in its favour. It is an early unopussed work
and one's attention is not held or only focused for short episodes. The
Schubertian adagio (Reger is good at these movements) comes second in this
three movement work. Although the work falls into the category of juvenilia
it is good to have it available as a reflection of Reger's early untutored
style.

The Quartet Op. 54 No. 1 in G minor (1900) is a work of maturity:
bustling elaboration of lines, driving force, a hiccuping bucolic air in
the second movement, buzzingly dreamy in the largo mesto (the best
movement) and ending, unusually for Reger, in a prestissimo assai which
is fugal in character. The Quartet Op. 54 No. 2 in A major (1910)
is, at just over 20 mins, rather short for a Reger quartet. It is the most
compact of the six. The approach is restless with much chopping and changing
of theme and pace. Both Op. 54 pieces are hard going though in no way atonal.
Perhaps one can understand the exasperation of some composers of the time
who turned their back on tonality and resorted to the 'new way' - to Schoenberg.
No. 2 is memorably taken up with the hurly-burly of some dangerous street
scene in which death flits among the crowd: a work of character but ultimately
draining.

The String Quartet Op. 74 in D minor (1903) is an epic work spanning
53:15. The high string lines are piled deep and thick - interweaving in
increasing polyphonic complexity. When Reger gets tired there is a pause
but often as not in the big (20 min) first movement it is followed by another
rush into a somersaulting and cartwheeling tapestry of rich density. The
clouds occasionally part for some lovely moments worthy of the finest e.g.
the sea lullaby at 4:03. Typically the Vivace second movement is,
in timing and spirit, an exact counterpart for the second movements of Opp
109 and 121. The Third movement is a calm andante sostenuto con
variazioni. The final allegro con spirito e vivace is romantic
and complex at the same time. As Susann Popp's supportive and detailed notes
point out, this pushes tonal music into one of its furthest and most remote
reaches. Concision was not a strong suit of Reger. What this work does teach
you (and I needed to be taught) is that Reger is a master of fantasy. The
young players present the work to rather intense advantage and are intimately
recorded - capturing the creaking of the chairs and the breathing of players
in moments of high drama.

The Fourth Quartet Op. 109 (35.44) is a strange reversal of the situation
with Havergal Brian (of whom it was said that the lack of performances of
his work effectively consolidated in him a tendency to awkward construction
and organisation). The mid-1890s concert in which Reger partnered the Bohemian
String Quartet in Brahms' Piano Quintet may well have encouraged Reger into
complexity. The Bohemians set new technical and artistic standards in their
playing. Reger must have revelled in their excellence and wrote music to
match and even test the players' high achievement. The complexity is well-known
and terribly clichéed now but what this performance by the Berne Quartet
also brings out, whenever the opportunity offers, is Reger's access to lyricism
and mood-setting. Listen to the At a bierside lament of the first
movement at 09:30. The quasi presto would go well by itself on Classic
fM such is its perfect flighty brevity (4.33) and owl-wing quality. The warm
and glowing Larghetto, not at all academic, has Dvorak's set to the
jaw - the smile drifts indulgently from regret to sweetly elaborate song
(3:33). The finale is fugally pointed; a dainty bobbing dance.

The Op. 121 Quartet (38.02) (1911) is dedicated to the Bohemians and
was premiered by them in Dresden on 11 October 1911. While never anything
other than lyrical and tonal this work is characterised by complexity of
lines and yet more fugal chase. His adagio third movements are often touchingly
done with a nod in the direction of Dvorak and so it proves here with long
lines holding time in charmed suspense. In both the Op. 109 and the 121 these
slow movements are preceded by a very brief and winged
Presto/Vivace. The finale ushers itself in with the elements
of fugal writing but its horizons soon broaden to take in a mixture of moods
including the macabre moth-flight of the 109 presto, becalmed waters (8:52)
the antique (almost neo-classical at 7:03) and the vigorous. Reger's ideas
are good but there were moments in this quartet where I momentarily wondered
if they could have been presented more succinctly.

If this music is unfamiliar to you and you would like to explore the place
to start is with the Op. 109 Quartet. Its manner is among the most relaxed
and its style amongst the least curlicued. After these works do try the Zemlinsky
quartets and Franz Schmidt's pair of quartets. Also rewarding in this and
any company do not forget John Foulds' Quartetto Intimo and Bax's
String Quartet No. 3 (the latter to be recorded by Naxos - a CD premiere
- it had previously appeared on a 1980 Gaudeamus LP). Both these British
works are of the 1930s but are comparable in scale and ambition to the Regers.

The Berne Quartet (not forgetting Bela Szedlak in the prentice work), CPO
and Schweizer Radio DRS are owed our thanks and admiration. This is a most
rewarding project. It is difficult to imagine it being better done.